Crowdfunding sought for Lee Tamahori to make second NZ film

Crowdfunding
sought for Lee Tamahori to return home and make second New
Zealand film

2 SEPTEMBER 2014[FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE]

New Zealanders have a chance to invest
in Lee Tamahori's second New Zealand film. The last 5% of
the funding for The Patriarch ($500,000) is being
sought via the country's first equity crowdfunding platform,
Snowball Effect, and investors will be rewarded with a stake
in the film's profits.

Producer Robin Scholes, who has
produced New Zealand feature films like Once Were
Warriors, Rain and most recently Mr Pip, says,
“This is a great opportunity for film lovers and genuine
investors alike to play a vital part in getting an
exceptional film made, while also having the ability to gain
a return for investment through this new form of crowd
funding.”

Lee Tamahori's first film, Once Were
Warriors, was a huge cultural, critical and financial
success. It returned more than $6.5 million to its kiwi
investors and catapulted the director into an international
film career. Tamahori went on to make huge hollywood films
like James Bond's Die Another Day, Along Came a
Spider starring Morgan Freeman and The Edge
starring Antony Hopkins.

Twenty years after the release of
Once Were Warriors, Lee Tamahori wants to come back
to New Zealand and make another film with the same team,
including producer Robin Scholes and actor Temuera
Morrison.

Shaun Edlin, head of Snowball Effect’s company
pipeline, says “We are really excited that Robin and the
team behind The Patriarch want to offer this film
investment opportunity to New Zealanders through Snowball
Effect. It’s our chance to show the world how innovative
equity crowdfunding can be. If Kiwis get behind this offer,
it will demonstrate that equity crowdfunding can be utilised
to fund commercially viable creative projects and one-off
events”.

The Patriarch is based on Witi
Ihimaera's novel, Bulibasha. It is a classic story of
the struggle of family dynamics and the conflict of
generations for a rural East Coast Maori family in 1950s New
Zealand.

Ihimaera has said that this is Tamahori's "
return home" film based on one of his best-loved novels
Bulibasha. Witi says, “Lee's talent as a film maker
combined with John Collee's strong script, will deliver a
film with universal appeal."

For Tamahori the story
is a return to the sights and scenes of his childhood. He
says he has a personal empathy and understanding of the era,
the place and the people at the heart of Ihimaera's story.
“I badly want to put this environment and its characters
on the big screen. They deserve no less."

“I haven't
seen a script with this much power, a story so strong since
Once Were Warriors,” says Temuera Morrison. “Our
best stories and our best work comes from our own earth and
our own country and we have a story to do this with The
Patriarch.”

Producer Robin Scholes explains, “The
people who put money forward for this final $500,000 will be
part of an elite tier of investors. They will be first
priority to recoup their capital along with a 20% premium
from net income. Other rewards for investors include being
named in the film credits, invitations to the set during
filming and invitations to the film's premier.

The goal is
to raise $500,000 by beginning of October so that Tamahori
can return to New Zealand to begin work on The
Patriarch in December.

“It's time for him to come
home, make one of our real stories and work with some real
actors as well – enough of those Hollywood ones!” says
Morrison.

Snowball Effect made headlines in August by
launching the first ever equity crowdfunding offer in New
Zealand, where Renaissance Brewing's $700,000 funding target
was fully subscribed in less than 2 weeks from 287
investors.

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